T1 Hosted by ACD (Michigan)

[Conundrum]

A friend of mine continues to encounter difficulties with having the T1 he has been paying for (I think it has been over a month now) working with his home network. He has had two people come over so far to try and get his SOHO router (Linksys WRT45G) work with the connection. The ISP itself (ACD) had tech support, but they have no clue how to support the T1 connection he has. Basically they made sure it was working when connected directly to his home computer and left it at that.

Now there has to be a router on their end that's handling csu/dsu for it to be able to be connected to the home computer and functioning. When it's connected to the router, for some reason the static IP registers and the DHCP functions but while the router port IP resolves, it is not allowing any network traffic through. Their technical support doesn't appear to be very knowledgeable about how they have everything set up. They don't know what we're sitting behind, and it makes things rather frustrating.

Any and all suggestions regarding this dilemma would be greatly appreciated. The router itself is using the static IP assigned to the port on the router that has to be handling the csu/dsu and DHCP is handling all internal traffic. It's just not working. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[spidey07]

Need more information (is the actual router that services the T1 provided by ACD, what are they giving you...and ethernet port on a router?). If it's working with his computer connected then it is something wrong with his equipment.

What is the working scenatrio? Ethernet from the router provided by the telco with a cat5 cable and the computer with a statically assigned IP? If so, then setting up the linksys is pretty straight forward.

 

[Conundrum]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Need more information (is the actual router that services the T1 provided by ACD, what are they giving you...and ethernet port on a router?). If it's working with his computer connected then it is something wrong with his equipment.

What is the working scenatrio? Ethernet from the router provided by the telco with a cat5 cable and the computer with a statically assigned IP? If so, then setting up the linksys is pretty straight forward.

Yeah, you'd think that wouldn't you? That's what everyone involved has said.. and yet it continues to not function the way that everyone is saying it should. We have no access to the router he's sitting behind. We also have had no luck finding out FROM ACD what it actually is, and they have said countless times that they don't know how to support the service they're providing. Frustrating no? He's almost on the verge of attempting to put a case together to sue them. He's a lawyer by the way. I know he's frustrated with the situation, and I'm trying to enlist the assistance of people with experience in this department.

It's definitely their router. It's a CAT5 cable that's running from the router into his house that's out in the country. He lives out in the boonies in Eaton Rapids, MI and for broadband access, satellite or T1 was pretty much all he has to choose from. Everyone that has been involved with this particular debacle has said pretty much the same thing. That it should be frighteningly easy to have it work. Unfortunately, that has not proven to be the case for whatever reason. I know the router on his end was configured properly. I just had no luck while I was over there getting any useful information out of ACD's technical support.

He's being put in touch with someone that has the same service that's working now. So hopefully they'll be able to give him some ideas as to why it isn't working. I'm still hoping that someone might make a suggestion as to what might be happening on their end that's basically causing the traffic from the router that's basically configured the same way as the computer when it's working from being able to talk out through their router. It's really rather frustrating.

 

[cmetz]

Conundrum, he needs to dump this ISP and get a real ISP. If the ISP can't make things work, he should be able to get out of his contract amicably.

Suing your ISP is an excellent way to end up being out of every local ISP's service area.

 

[Conundrum]

Originally posted by: cmetz
Conundrum, he needs to dump this ISP and get a real ISP. If the ISP can't make things work, he should be able to get out of his contract amicably.

Suing your ISP is an excellent way to end up being out of every local ISP's service area.

Well, I gave him a link to this thread in case anyone had some information that would be beneficial to him. I don't think he WANTS to sue anyone. He just wants to get his T1 working with a wireless router so that he can use his laptop or if anyone comes over to his house and wants to use it can access it or even just another computer or two can hook into the router by cable. I don't know what he's going to decide to do ultimately. Only time will tell, and I'm just trying to help him to get as much information as possible to solve his situation. I know it has been going on for over a month now.

What I don't get with this situation. The one thing that really makes absolutely no sense to me is this. How can you sell a service as an ISP and not have anyone to support the service? Or even to provide the simplest information regarding what you're sitting behind. I feel his frustration as well, and I've only been over there one time to try and get everything working. I'd be pulling my hair out if I were in his shoes. The worst parts of it are everyone saying how easy it should be to set this up and nobody at the number he was given to support his service having any idea how to service a T1. You'd think they'd have at least one person there at some point that would have some idea. *shakes head*

 

[cmetz]

Conundrum, perhaps this ISP had someone who knew what they were doing, but left. Or maybe they have someone who knows what they are doing, but that person doesn't talk with customers. Or maybe that person is a contractor. There are a lot of mom-and-pop ISPs (for that matter, a lot of big ISPs...) who don't have the cluepower to really run their network and fix problems, but limp anyway as best they can.

If you're not getting support at an acceptable level, you should focus on dropping this ISP and finding another one. It's not very likely that support is going to get enough better the next time he has a problem.